Rating:  

Starring: Taylor Schilling, Patrick Fischler, Matthew Marsden, Grant Bowler, Jsu Garcia, Edi Gathegi, Paul Johansson, Geoff Pierson, Rebecca Wisocky, Michael O’Keefe, Michael Lerner, Jon Polito, Christina Pickles, Annabelle Gurwitch, Ethan Cohn.
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Director: Paul Johansson
Rating: PG-13
Running Time: 97 Minutes
Release Date: April 15, 2011
Home Video Release Date: December 6, 2011
Box Office: $4.7 Million
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The Strike Productions and Rocky Mountain Pictures.

Written by: John Aglialoro and Brian Patrick O’Toole; adapted from the novel, “Atlas Shrugged” by Ayn Rand.

Come one and come all, because in 2011, someone finally did the impossible. Ayn Rand’s storied and historical manifesto, which became the benchmark for her Objectivism movement, “Atlas Shrugged” finally made the conversion from novel to feature film. An unending list of filmmakers, both A-list and B-list, have wanted to adapt Rand’s novel for the big and/or small screen, but it was Paul Johansson, a long-time Canadian actor, who got it done. Making his feature film directorial debut with what is reportedly the first in a trilogy of films, Atlas Shrugged Part I became one of 2011’s most curiously anticipated films, championed by the American Tea Party movement as a defining moment where their movement and their political ideologies would finally get the keys to the mainstream entertainment industry’s car. Gathering $20 million in production budget, Atlas Shrugged Part I went into production in 2010 and upstart studio Rocky Mountain Pictures announced that the film would release on April 15, 2011 (Tax Day, natch) and stirred up promotions with conservative and libertarian organizations, politicians, and commentators as to the film’s impending arrival.

And then it arrived. 1,500+ theaters agreed to exhibit the film, a rather impressive sum no doubt, but only 299 ended up actually showing the film on its opening day. Critics were largely banned from seeing it. And then, when that all important day arrived, everyone – folks from the Tea Party, Libertarian, Conservative, or otherwise – all stayed home. The film tanked at the box office, failing to even register $1,000 gross per screen and flamed out of theaters within a few weeks. The film’s lackluster response was blamed on critics’ negative response to the film (they did not see it ahead of time), and then later, was blamed on critics’ anger towards not being shown the film in advance. Eventually, the narrative became that the mainstream media and liberal-leaning news organizations attempted to diffuse and suppress the film’s promotional efforts. Fine, okay. Watching this all unfold was comical, to say the least, and then the home video release was announced for December 2011 and I held morbid curiosity as to what all of this drama was truly about.

And you know…drama is the one unique element missing from Atlas Shrugged, Part I, as is entertainment value. Without question, Atlas Shrugged Part I is one of the most uninteresting and arrogant films I have ever seen, a film so insular and so enamored with itself that even objectivists, and those more in line with the values and concepts on display here, complained about how amateurish and boring the film happened to be. There is dry and there is lifeless. And then there is Atlas Shrugged Part I.

For 97 minutes, I sat baffled. The film, frankly, is simply awful – awful to the point where attempting to decipher a novel in a foreign language without translation would be more enjoyable. For a movement to champion this film as a rallying cry to take back the political discussion is laughable because this film is so asleep, so inert, and lacks any heartbeat for what it is espousing. Worse, for $20 million, I have no idea what Paul Johannson did with the money because the production values reflect that of a daytime television soap opera, all while taking place in the most illogical dystopia ever brought to screen.

The film centers on a young woman, Dagny (Taylor Schilling), who runs a successful railroad in 2016 (!!!) and struggles to keep her business model alive in a world that is apparently losing its ideals, integrity, and morality. She is a fighter though and this constantly makes her brother and de facto boss, James, festering and agitated – though he never really is all that angry on screen. Naturally, all of this is depicted by dinner meetings, long expositional diatribes, the See-I-Told-You-So commentary on crumbling buildings and infrastructure, random shots of various skylines and the rolling plains of Colorado (or was that Wisconsin?), with all the characters commiserating about the disintegration of American ingenuity and increased and shameful reliance on the government, at elitist and exclusive dinner parties and formal social engagements. Toss in a failed marriage and adultery and we got…well, nothing. We really have nothing here at all folks.

The film is laughable in its arrogance, except that when someone laughs that implies that they are typically being entertained in some fashion. And there is literally nothing entertaining about watching a film which becomes the equivalent of an old crazy relative cornering you at a family function and lecturing you about how things “used to be and ought to be.” Watching Atlas Shrugged, Part I is analogous to failing repeatedly in trying to find the right words to say to get out of that conversation. .

Should I See It?

I literally have nothing to place in the YES column, other than you have an unquenchable desire to watch it. I’ll quote one of the FIVE positive reviews acquired by Rotten Tomatoes. For purposes of a YES, I will reference Kyle Smith’s review from the New York Post…

“Though a bit stiff in the joints and acted by an undistinguished cast amid TV-movie trappings, this low-budget adaptation of Ayn Rand’s novel nevertheless contains a fire and a fury that makes it more compelling than the average mass-produced studio item.”

Read above. Atlas Shrugged Part I is not full of gratuitous violence, rampant nudity, or shocking and offensive content. But that would help… (RIMSHOT!).

Rather, the film consists of literally 97 minutes of people asking “Who Is John Galt?” and debating and arguing about Dagny Taggart’s rail lines and how the government is infringing on the free market and on and on and on. Paint looks better, holds its place longer, and even dries at a more engaging pace than any emotion generated by this film. Atlas Shrugged exists simply to hear itself breathe.